Welcome to the first week of the Spring Writing Challenge!
We’re so excited to get started on these stories. It’s time to roll up your sleeves, set your fingers on your keyboard, and get writing. Will your story contain aliens? A prince in disguise? Maybe even a sweet summer romance? Whatever happens, we can’t wait to see what you come up with!
So, without further ado, here’s your very first prompt!
Week One Prompt – The Dialogue Prompt
“If you know something bad is going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here.”
Wait…what’s a dialogue prompt?
A dialogue prompt is a conversation between two characters. It doesn’t matter who says it, or if it takes place in the beginning, middle, or end of your story. However, one character must say the first sentence, and the second character must respond with the second sentence.
Before you start writing, there are some important rules to follow.
Writing Rules
1. Please keep the content of the stories you post to a PG rating. Please avoid real curse words. Violence/fighting should be limited and purposeful. Please do not include any spice. Moderators may remove stories and comments for any reason at any time. Moderators may remove any member from the challenge at any time.
2. Your story must be 1,000 words or less, and must contain the prompt to be counted for the challenge. You’re not required to post it in order to “win” the challenge, but if you want it to count for your team, your story must be posted by Sunday at 11:59 PM ET, and you must include your team name.
It’s time to post your story as a comment down below! We can’t wait to see all the fun directions you guys take this dialogue prompt. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@writers.company!
Happy Writing!
Ava,
Your story was very well written! I enjoyed reading it! 👏
Melissa
Ooh, what a fun story, girl! Fantastic job!
Wow, this is beautifully written!
I love your writing style!
Wow, I’m very impressed. The worldbuilding here feels grounded and real, the characters fleshed out, and the prompt just flows so smoothly with the rest of the narrative. Great story here!
I hope this part of something larger. I was totally sucked in.
Thanks for sharing your work. 🙂 Enjoyable read.
great opening line!
Beautiful story! Great job!
Absolutely loved it
i NEED the rest of this asap! i would love this as a book series. its excellent! The world-building is so good. you did a great job. i especially love how the characters are already full of the knowledge of the world and there is no need for any one character to outright explain things. again, have i expressed how i literally want this in my life so much!
Great details! I was brought right into the world you built!
Such a fun story! Loved the comical banter between characters
Crisis on Board team 1 week 1
The buzzer rang, and Kyle checked his watch; it was four a.m. Who was calling at 4 a.m. on a Sunday? He flicked the buzzer, and the blurry image of his boss appeared. “Hello?” Kyle asked drowsily.
“Kyle, I hope I didn’t wake you.” His boss started, knowing full well he had. “Since you’re awake, can you come in today?”
Kyle groaned; he should have known after Trevor went to the party last night, he wouldn’t be making it to work this morning. Kyle let out a long sigh. He didn’t like working seven days in a row, but he was hoping to go back to school and needed the money. “I could be in this afternoon,” Kyle said sleepily.
“I need you for the 6 am shuttle run. See you soon,” and hung up.
Kyle dragged himself out of bed and into the office. He was met at the door by Ezzi with a cup of coffee and a smile. “Ready for a fun Sunday?” she quipped. Kyle smiled and sipped the coffee.
The alert sounded; it was time to get to the transport. Kyle did an exterior inspection and fueled the shuttle, while Ezzi made sure the interior cabin was ready for the commuters. Protocols completed; they headed to the front of the capsule. Kyle took the captain’s chair while Ezzi prepared to greet passengers. Kyle knew his usual group, but today each person boarding was a new face. Some were fresh-faced and happy, excited for a day trip to the moon, others were stoic, used to the back-and-forth grind of the commute. The last to board were a young boy and his mother. He quickly took a seat and began to look eagerly around at the passengers while his mother gazed anxiously out the window.
“First ride?” Ezzi asked.
The boy smiled and nodded while his mother shook her head and returned to the window. Kyle and Ezzi went through the normal takeoff procedures before Kyle eased the capsule out of the docking bay and into the bright morning sun. Kyle never got tired of the view as they broke through the atmosphere and the feeling of weightlessness it brought.
“You may now disengage your seat belts if you wish,” Ezzi announced.
Many of the daily commuters stayed seated, immune to the joys of floatability. But a few took advantage of defying gravity. One bald man with a large mole on his ear headed to the bathroom. Kyle continued piloting towards Tycho City while Ezzi floated out to assist the passengers. With autopilot offline, Kyle needed to concentrate as they navigated the satellite fields. Suddenly, a small hand tapped Ezzi’s shoulder.
“Are you in charge?” the young boy asked anxiously.
She smiled. “Sort of. What can I help you with?”
“My mommy always says to find the person in charge if you have a really important question.”
She nodded. “Your mommy must be very smart.”
The boy nodded and looked about before whispering. “If you knew something bad was going to happen, do you have to try and stop it?”
“I just got here! Do you think something bad is going to happen on this flight?” A mild panic started in her stomach.
“Well,” he whispered. “I heard some bad men arguing; they sounded angry. One of the men said that Tycho City deserved whatever it gets, and the other said he would take care of it, before showing him something in his coat. I think Mommy heard, too, but she’s scared to fly, and just hurried us onboard away from them. What do you think I should do?”
Ezzi took a deep, calming breath; she didn’t want to alarm the child. “I think you did the right thing telling me. I’ll see what I can do.”
He smiled sweetly, “I knew you could help.”
Kyle had heard everything and hit a hidden button near the take-off gear that sent a message to authorities alerting them of a crisis. In his ten years of driving the Earth to Moon shuttle, he had only pressed it twice before, this made three. “I think you did the right thing. Why don’t you go sit with your mommy, and I’ll come ask you some questions.”
The boy nodded and floated back to his mother. Ezzi rejoined Kyle moments later, “We have a code Greenburg. I need to talk to the little boy and his mother. We should be landing in about an hour and a half. Did you press the button?”
Kyle nodded, and Ezzi floated back to the couple, activating the link to headquarters to record their conversation. Kyle could hear Ezzi’s gentle questioning and heard the concern in the mother’s voice as she quietly answered. Then he heard the boy’s animated descriptions of the two men and their argument. As he listened, he remembered one of the men described and slunk on board just before the boy and his mother.
Suddenly, a call came through over his headset. It was the authorities from Tycho City giving him a direct order for landing, not the main commercial headquarters, but the private landing strips reserved for military and VIPs. Kyle typed in the new coordinates and began to turn the shuttle to the outskirts of Tycho City.
An hour later, they were being given landing clearance in the restricted area. Several of the passengers looked around in alarm. The door opened slowly, and three lunar officers entered. The first assured the shuttle’s occupants that everything was okay while the other two swept through the cabin. “Here!” one called out as they pulled a man to his feet.
The boy cried out and pointed, “That’s him! He said he’d fix Tycho City.”
The man began to struggle against his captors until an officer administered a sedative. As they disembarked, the first officer approached the child. “Thank you,” he said before they disembarked.
The rest of the passengers stared in confusion before Kyle started the engines to return them to Tycho City.
Thanks for posting this. A tough topic with kids in tough schools is the us against all authority. They simply don’t believe they should tell, even if they know something bad may happen. Interesting take as an option for trying to stop it.
To Change the World, by Ava Murbarger
P.S.- sorry I missed the meeting, we were out of town. I hope to be at the next one!!
The sky was bleeding again.
Rust-colored clouds hung over the City like bruises, pulsing faintly. Rael kept her eyes fixed on them, one hand on the rail of the Watchers’ Tower. Her gloves were too thin. The steel was cold enough to bite.
Behind her, a door creaked open.
“You’re late,” she said without turning.
Boots scraped against the stone. A new recruit, probably. They sent one every week now. Fresh eyes, fresh loyalty.
“I got lost,” the boy said. He sounded too young to carry the badge. Too soft to hold a blade. “Sorry.”
She turned and looked at him.
Dust-colored coat, too long in the sleeves. Wide eyes. Not from the City, then. One of the Outer Rings. Maybe even farther. She sighed.
“If you know something bad is going to happen,” she said, “do you have to try and stop it?”
The boy blinked. “I just got here.”
“Well, obviously.” She crossed her arms.
He shifted nervously on his feet.
Rael turned back to the cityscape. “The answer is yes, by the way. At least, if you’re cursed with a conscience.”
He joined her at the rail. Together they watched the distant flicker of drones weaving patterns in the smog. A red warning rune glowed briefly on the horizon, then faded. Rael knew what it meant. The Reclamation Agents were moving again. Soon, another neighborhood would vanish.
“Why do you do this?” the boy asked.
She laughed without humor. “Because no one else will. Because the High Council stopped caring two winters ago. Because someone has to.”
A long pause. Then, “Is it true the Watchers can see the future?”
“We read the signs,” she said. “Patterns in weather. Seismic anomalies. Political shifts. The Council says it’s superstition.” She paused. “But when the streets burn exactly seven hours after the rats vanish, over and over again, you stop calling it chance.”
He was silent. Good. Maybe he was listening.
“You said you got lost. But you still came up here. Why?”
“I heard the bells.” He hesitated. “They said you can’t hear them unless you’re meant to.”
Rael glanced at him. The brass bell on the tower hadn’t rung in years. She narrowed her eyes.
“Name?”
“Wren.”
“That’s not your real name.”
“It is now.”
She smirked. “Fine, Wren. Welcome to Watcher’s Hill. Welcome to the losing side.”
Another alarm rune lit the smog. Closer this time.
Rael pulled her scope from her belt and scanned the eastern edge of the city. “Sector Four. They’re burning the food lines again.”
“That’s the second time this week,” Wren said quietly.
She lowered the scope. “Third.”
He didn’t speak for a long time. Then he said, “My sister was there.”
Rael’s fingers tightened around the rail. She didn’t ask if the girl had survived. That wasn’t the kind of world they lived in anymore.
Instead, she reached into her coat and handed Wren a folded map, inked with lines and red X’s.
“There’s a storm tunnel under the old trainyard,” she said. “It’s not on any schematics, and it’ll get you to Sector Four faster than any street. But it’s dark. And crawling.”
Wren took the map with trembling fingers. “Why are you helping me?”
Rael looked at him, really looked. The wide eyes weren’t wide with fear, not completely. It was fire. Just hidden under the ash.
“Because sometimes the only thing worse than seeing the future,” she said softly, “is doing nothing to change it.”
Wren nodded. His jaw set. “Then I’ll go.”
Rael watched as he turned, vanishing back into the tower’s dark. When the door slammed shut behind him, the bell gave a soft chime. Just once.
And far below, the wind began to shift.